


i wanna go (where the lights burn low)

by ofhobbitsandwomen (litvirg)



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Canon Universe, M/M, Pining, Roommates, dex pov, nursey as mercutio is my kink and if i have to deliver the goods so be it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-28 07:10:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16236746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/litvirg/pseuds/ofhobbitsandwomen
Summary: “Benvolio!”Nursey shouted.“Now art thou sociable!”“Christ,” Dex mumbled. He pushed himself off the wall and made his way toward Nursey whose hands were still extended out, dramatically toward him.“Think you’ve probably had enough there, Nurse,” he said, plucking the mostly empty cup of tub juice from Derek’s hand.Nursey just ruffled his hair.or:the one where Nursey is Mercutio and needs a Benvolio to run lines with. Reality gets a little blurry for Dex.





	i wanna go (where the lights burn low)

**Author's Note:**

> ao3 refreshed and got rid of my edits so if u find typos bury them deep in ur heart and never tell me ok

Will learned early on in the semester that living with Derek Nurse meant _never_ being able to concentrate on his own homework.

Whether Nursey was working or not, it didn’t matter. He’d be sitting in the desk across from him, muttering to himself as he read, tapping his knuckles in patterns on his laptop, glancing up at Will periodically to check that he was still working on his homework. Taking note, no doubt, for how to best distract him from his assignments, driving him to the brink of insanity.

Or worse, when Nursey didn’t even have homework he was putting off. When he was just there, sitting on his bunk, reading or writing or listening to music. Somehow _everything_ he did was distracting.

So Will left the big projects for the library.

Except for Thursday nights. Nursey usually had a poetry thing on Thursday that kept him out late enough that Will could make use of their space, actually get his work done in his own room without Nursey tossing pencils at him every three seconds.

So when Will got home, ready to hunker down for the next three hours, ready to play the music he knew Nursey hated, and found Nursey lying casually across the bottom bunk he stopped dead in his tracks.

“What are you doing here?”

Nursey glanced up at him, smiling. “You forget I live here, man?”

“No like,” Dex sighed. “It’s Thursday.”

“Yes?”

“You’re never home on Thursdays,” Dex said, frustrated. He _knew_ Nursey knew what he meant and was being difficult on _purpose_. “You do that poetry thing.”

“Oh,” Nursey shrugged. “Nothing new this week. Decided to skip out.”

Dex dropped into his chair and sighed. Great. Not getting anything done tonight then.

“So you’re like,” Dex waved his hand nonsensically. “Not leaving at all?”

“Welcome home to you too,” Nursey snorted. Then his eyes widened and he sat up, his legs swinging down from his mattress. “Oh, shit, dude did you like...need the room?”

Dex chucked a pen at Nursey.

“God, man! No,” he shook his head at Nursey. Who still looked like he was ready to grab his shoes and leave Dex with the room, and Dex could feel his face burning as he looked everywhere but at Nursey. “You’re just...It’s hard to get work done when you’re in here,” he explained. “I usually do homework here instead of the library on Thursdays.”

“Oh,” Nursey shifted back onto his bed. He pushed himself back against his pillows and waved his book up at Dex, like evidence. “Go ahead, work, I won’t bother you.”

Dex rolled his eyes. _Yeah right_. But he didn’t want to walk all the way back to the library at this point and he didn’t have anything terribly pressing to get done anyway. So he pulled his laptop out of his bag and plugged his headphones in, hoping it would be enough.

•••

“ _Please_ ,” Nursey said, again, from his bunk.

A small paperback as pressed open against his chest, where it had been the last twenty minutes. It was late, too dark in their room to read anywhere but the desks, especially in the hooded dark of Nursey’s bottom bunk.

Will’s computer on the other hand, seemed to be blinding him with blue light. He rubbed his eyes, wishing he hadn’t lost his blue light glasses. He couldn’t buy another pair, so he had to hope they’d just turn up. He suspected they’d been swallowed by the mostrous green coach. For now he sat with his eyes aching, straining against the light as he tried desperately to finish his assignment.

“Dude, I have my own homework,” he said, again. _Again_. So much for not bothering him. Nurse had waited about five minutes before slipping back into regular habits.

“I know you need a break. That’s like the tenth time you’ve rubbed your eyes in five minutes.”

Will ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook and crumpled it up to throw at Nursey.

“Don’t just watch me do homework, it’s weird,” he said. “Plus, it’s not like reading a crap ton of poetry I don’t understand is gonna help me stay awake, and I need to finish this.”

“What if….” Nursey swung his legs off the bed and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “I go grab us some ice cream, and when I get back you help me for 20 minutes. Then you can get back to building the internet or whatever.”

Dex pushed his hands into his hair.

“Fifteen?” Nursey amended.

There was no way he was finishing the assignment tonight anyway, and he might as well take an ice cream break. Plus, he only had one class in the morning–he could spend the whole rest of the day in the library, away from a prattling Derek Nurse, and finish it up in probably half the time it would take him to push through it tonight.

“Fine,” he slammed his laptop closed. “ _Fine_. Fifteen minutes, that’s all.”

Nursey held three fingers up. “Scout’s honor.”

“You definitely weren’t ever a scout, bro.”

“You so sure about that?” Nursey said, swinging past him. “I think there’s a lot you don’t know about me Poindexter.”

Will picked up the book that had fallen from Nursey’s chest to his mattress in his move to get up. _Romeo and Juliet_. Because of course it was. Will snorted.

It was an old tattered copy, Will guessed Nursey bought it long before signing up for the class. There were scribbles all throughout it, he noticed. Completely illegible, hastily scrawled throughout, but definitely Nursey’s handwriting.

Nursey came back, and dropped a bowl of mint chip on Will’s desk.

“How do you read any of the shit you write in here?” Will asked, handing the book back. “It looks like a drunk toddler wrote it.”

“Gotta get the feelings out somehow, bro,” Nurse shrugged.

They sat in silence as they ate, spoons clinking against the bowls the only noise left in the room. Nursey had tucked himself back into his bunk, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders while he ate.

When Will pushed his empty bowl aside, Nursey handed the tattered paperback back over to him.

“Don’t you need this?”

Nursey shrugged. “Prof handed out a temp script in class, I can read from that for now.” He flipped through, looking for whatever scene he needed prepared, and then gestured to Will to do the same. “Act One Scene Four,” he said.

“Who are you?” Will asked. “Let me guess, Romeo?”

“Nope,” Nursey smirked. “Mercutio. You’re Romeo.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m reading for Mercutio,” he was nodding like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “So you need to be Romeo, that’s who he’s talking to in this scene.”

_Jesus_. Dex felt his cheeks grow hot. He didn’t–he didn’t want to read for the lead of the play. Even if it was just in their room and even if it was just Nursey. Maybe _especially_ since it was Nursey. Nursey who drank poetry like water, whose mind was so completely opposite of Will’s that neither one of them had any reference point for the other’s world.

Nurse didn’t need another reason to think Dex was a robot–not being able to understand what the hell Shakespeare was saying would just fuel a week’s worth of chirps.

“Why can’t I just read along and tell you if you’ve got the lines right? Don’t you just have to memorize it?”

“It’s way more than that bro,” Nursey said. “I have to feel it. I _need_ a Romeo to talk to. Without a Romeo, Mercutio can’t do any of this shit.”

“Ugh,” Will groaned. “Fine. But your fifteen minutes already started.”

Nursey shrugged like he didn’t care, and Will fought the urge to chuck the book at his head.

“Your line’s first, bro.” He tapped the book in Will’s hands, marking where they were staring.

Will rolled his eyes, but looked down at the scene in front of him. “Um, okay. Uh, _Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling. Being but heavy I will bear the light._ ”

Jesus. He even sounded like a robot.

Nursey smiled. “ _Nay, gentle Romeo_ ,” his knee knocked against Will’s own. “ _We must have you dance._ ”

It was completely unfair that a sentence with the word _nay_ in it sounded so natural from Nursey. Will had no idea what was happening in the scene but he rolled his eyes at Nursey smiling across from him, and looked back down, reading out his next line, just as stiff as the first. He willed the time to go by faster.

“ _You are a lover_ ,” Nursey said back to him. He leaned in close, knocked him on the shoulder. “ _Borrow Cupid’s wings and soar them above a common bound._ ”

He didn’t seem to mind at all that Will wasn’t acting alongside him. That Will was just sitting there, rote reading his lines, like if he rushed through them this would all be over faster.

Nursey’s eyes met his, open and playful and for a split second, Will actually wanted to know what the scene was about. What was he saying to him? What was it in the play that made Nursey look at him like that?

“ _And, to sink in it, should you burden love–too great oppression for a tender thing_.”

He hesitated a moment too long, and Nursey nodded toward his script, smirking. Will cleared his throat, looking back down. “Uh, _Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous and it pricks like thorn._ ”

At that, Nursey leapt up, grabbing Will by the shoulders, script completely disregarded. His fingers tightened against WIll’s shoulders, shaking him softly as he leaned down, his nose a hair away from Will’s own.

“ _If love be rough with you, be rough with love!_ ” he yelled. “ _Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down._ ”

He stopped abruptly, the act dissolving in thin air. In an instant their bedroom was back and Nursey was standing there, frowning down at him, thick crease between his brows. Just Nursey. As _just_ as Nursey could ever be.

“This isn’t right,” he muttered.

“Seemed...fine to me?” Will said hesitantly. He wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t right, but watching Nursey slip into character so easily, the words flowing out of him like he actually meant them certainly didn’t feel _wrong_.

“Oh come on man,” Nursey rolled his eyes. He was back on his bunk flipping through the script. He held a single finger out to Dex, his nonverbal way of trying to get Dex to chill. “You are so not a Romeo–”

“ _You_ asked _me_ to do this!” Will grumbled. He tossed the book on top of his laptop annoyed. Maybe he wasn’t a _great_ actor but he’d been trying. It shouldn’t matter how he was doing anyway. Nursey just needed to memorize his lines.

“No, no, that’s not what I meant,” he said smoothly. “Here, Act Two Scene Four.” He grabbed the book off Will’s desk and flipped to the right page, shoving the open book back into Will’s hands when he was ready. “I dunno what I was thinking man, you’re _such_ a Benvolio.”

“Whatever that means.”

“Just trust me, bro.”

Famous last words, Dex thought. But he bit his tongue and glanced down at his script. Nursey’s smile grew wide as he jumped up, already back in character.

_“Where the devil should this Romeo be?”_

•••

Fifteen minutes turned into twenty, which was fine. Really it was fine. But then twenty turned into thirty and thirty turned into an hour and an hour turned into…

Well an hour turned into Nursey insisting that getting high would help him get in the headspace because,

“Dude, have you ever read, like, the first five pages of _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_?”

“You gotta know the answer to that is no,” Dex laughed.

“No way Billy Shakes was sober when he wrote that. Hand to _god_.”

Will snorted. “I don’t think anyone was ever sober back then,” he said. “Beer was like, a full meal.”

“I don’t know how accurate that is Dexy,” Nursey smiled at him. He was hanging upside down off his bunk, his curls smushed softly into the pillow Dex had shoved under Nurse’s head when he’d slid so far down.

“Whatever.” His phone was wedged between pages of Nursey’s book, keeping their place for when they eventually went back to reading lines.

“It’s just such a classic Benvolio move,” Nursey said after a few moments of silence. “Sitting at your desk, a permanent frown on your face while Mercutio relaxes and has a good time. Never partaking in Mercutio’s great ideas.”

“I partake plenty.”

“Prove it.” He held the joint out to him, eyebrows waggling. Which looked absolutely ridiculous from his upside face, but Dex just glared down at him.

“I don’t need to get baked to prove I’m not a total asshole,” he snapped. Deep down he knew that’s not what Nursey meant, or well it probably wasn’t, but jesus. Could Nurse go one night without reminding him what a wet blanket he thought Will was?

_A permanent frown on your face._ Like Dex couldn’t let go for one second. Like him sitting there for the past _hour_ didn’t–whatever. It didn’t matter.

“You know you’re not _actually_ Mercutio, right?” He grabbed his phone from out of the book, not bothering to pick it up as it fell to the ground.

“Dex–” Nursey sat up, too quickly, totally losing his balance and tumbling off the bottom bunk. Dex just stepped over him and climbed up on his own mattress.

“I’m tired,” he said. “Turn the light off when you go to sleep.”

•••

Nursey was drunk.

Dex, somehow, _again_ , was on Nursey Patrol, even though technically it had been Chowder’s turn. But Farmer showed up and suddenly that didn’t matter. He’d clapped Dex on the shoulder, a quick,

“I’ll so, so owe you one man,” before he pulled him into a quick hug (because he was _Chowder_ ), then disappeared to his room with Cait.

So Dex was standing on the wall, way too sober, watching Nursey dancing on top of the couch, a wide berth around him as his cup of tub juice went sloshing everywhere. He spun around, tumbling a little, his left hand stopping his fall against the back of the couch, catching Dex’s eye.

“ _Benvolio_!” He shouted. “ _Now art thou sociable!_ ”

“Christ,” Dex mumbled. He pushed himself off the wall and made his way toward Nursey whose hands were still extended out, dramatically toward him.

“Think you’ve probably had enough there, Nurse,” he said, plucking the mostly empty cup of tub juice from Derek’s hand.

Nursey just ruffled his hair.

_“_ _Come, come, thou art as hot a jack in thy mood as any in Italy, and as soon moved to be moody, and as soon moody to be moved!”_

“Yeah, it’s time to get some water.” Dex shook his head. “You’re cut off for tonight.”

“ _By my heel, I care not._ ”

Nursey swung down off the couch, one arm slung around Dex’s neck. He was hot and sweaty and smelled vaguely of pine, and Will did his best not to lean in. He felt eyes all around them, boring into his back as Nursey waved and bowed like he'd finished a performance while Dex tried to guide him into the kitchen.

“What would I do without you, Benvolio,” Nursey muttered into his shoulder.

“Shut up, Nurse,” Dex said. But when Bitty offered to take Nursey up to their room, Dex shoook his head, telling Bits he didn’t mind, and found–somehow–that it wasn’t a lie.

•••

**_Nursey:_ ** _benvolio_

**_Nursey:_ ** _hey_

**_Nursey:_ ** _bennvvooolliiooooo_

**_Dex:_ ** _what Nurse_

**_Nursey:_ ** _run lines with me tonight ?_

**_Dex:_ ** _…_

**_Dex:_ ** _how long will it take to convince you to ask someone else_

**_Nursey_ ** _: three hrs, tops._

**_Dex_ ** _: fine._

**_Dex:_ ** _I have a study group until 4._

**_Nursey:_ ** _see u after 4! i’ll grab Annie’s for us_

•••

“You know what we should do?” Nursey said over a mouthful of chips.

Dex leaned back in his desk chair. “Finish chewing before we start talking?”

Nursey stuck his tongue out at him. “Fuck you.”

He shoved another handful of chips in his mouth, holding a single finger up to Dex while he chewed through it, slowly, smiling at him the whole time.

“We should watch _Romeo + Juliet_ ,” Nursey said.

“Like, go see a play?” Dex asked. He almost snorted. Running lines was one thing, but like actually going to a theater to sit through three hours of it? Pass. _Hard_ pass.

“No, like watch the movie version,” Nursey said. “The Baz Luhrmann one.”

“Um. Why?”

“It’ll help,” Nursey shrugged. He pushed the bag of chips over to the side of the bed and scooched over. Reaching behind him, he plucked up a spare pillow and set it to the side, patting the empty space in front of it. “C’mon, Pointdexter.”

Dex sighed, but pushed his chair in and shoved in next to Nursey.

“Fine,” he said.

Nursey smiled over at him and pulled a blanket over both their legs.

•••

It was late when Nursey got home.

Way, way late. Dex was sitting at his desk, pretending to work, clicking from window to window on his open laptop, too distracted to get anything done.

He picked his phone up again, pulling up his text thread with Nursey, just in case he’d missed a notification.

**_Dex_ ** _: you’re super late for team dinner, everything alright?_

**_Dex_ ** _: saved you some food, plates in the fridge_

**_Dex_ ** _: also stashed away some pie in our room, you don’t want to know what i had to go through to hide it from chow_

**_Dex_ ** _: okay seriously i’m starting to worry now_

**_Dex_ ** _: you’re like, coming home tonight right?_

Still no answer.

He knew Nursey’s phone was on, the little “ _delivered_ ” sat under the five unanswered bubbles, so at least he wasn’t dead in a ditch somewhere, unable to ask for help.

Unfortunately, that just meant he was probably just ignoring him. Dex tried to ignore how that made his stomach twist. It was nothing, he was just worried. That was all.

When Nursey did finally come in, Dex slammed his laptop closed.

“Jesus, Nurse,” he sighed. “You lose your phone or something? I texted you like a hundred times.”

Nursey held his phone up. “You texted me six times, Poindexter,” he said. “Chill.”

“Oh so you _did_ get them,” WIll bristled. “You just decided not to answer. Cool. I was worried you were, I don’t know, in trouble or something. But if you were just ignoring me then, great. Problem _solved_.”

Nursey flopped onto his bunk, head face down in the pillow. “Can we just, not do this now?” he mumbled. “I had a shit day.”

Dex rolled his eyes. _Whatever_ , he thought. He could always pick a fight with him about it tomorrow. He stood up, grabbing the plate of uneaten pie from the top bunk and dropped down next to Nursey, holding it out.

“Want to talk about it?” he asked. He poked Nursey with the fork until he lifted his head from the pillow. As soon as he spotted the pie, Nursey sat up, taking it gratefully.

“No,” he said around a mouthful of pie.

“Gross, close your mouth when you eat.”

Dex knew his roommate duties were done. He’d checked up on him, he’d waited up until he got home. He’d even made sure Nurse ate. And his phone was flashing 11:45pm up at him. He should get up, leave Nursey to his pie, get some sleep.

So he had no explanation for the words that fell from his mouth next.

“Want me to run lines with you?”

Nursey nearly choked on his pie.

“Are you for real, bro?”

Dex shifted uncomfortably. “I mean, we don’t have to,” he said quickly. “Sorry, I know it’s like homework or whatever so it’s probably not what you want to do right now. I just thought–”

“No,” Nursey cut him off. “Man, that would be _great_. So chill, thank you.”

Dex snorted, but grabbed the copy of _Romeo & Juliet _ that sat perched on the desk in front of them. He waited for Nursey to move, to rifle through his bag to get his, but he stayed where he was, eyes closed, head tipped back, the empty pie plate in his lap.

“You gonna, like,” Dex gestured to Nursey’s book bag. “Grab your copy?”

“Nah,” Nursey said. He had a slower energy about him than usual. A forced _chill_. His body language was all relaxed, head rolling to the side to look at Dex, legs spread out. But Dex could see his fingers tapping nervously, his breath almost artificially even, his throat bobbing up and down as he swallowed again and again.

“Gonna see if I can remember the lines,” he waved off Dex’s questioning look. “We have to go off book soon anyway.

“Oh, okay,” Dex said. Suddenly he felt incredibly stupid with the book in his hands. “What, uh, what part?”

“Act Three.” Nursey’s eyes were still pressed closed. “Scene One.”

Dex cleared his throat, flipping to the right page.

“ _I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire. The day is hot, the Capels are abroad, and if we meet, we shall not scape a brawl, for now these hot days, is the mad blood stirring._ ”

Nursey’s lips tipped upwards, softly, quickly, so slight that Dex almost missed them. Then his own lines were pouring forward. Slow and smooth, almost like he was humming. Derek’s shoulders moved softly from left to right as he felt the rhythm of the lines.

It was reading, real true reading he was seeing from Nursey. Not acting. Not dancing or fronting. Just a simple recitation.

It startled him a moment too long, making him totally miss his cue. One of Nursey’s eyes popped open and he cleared his throat, nodding down to the book sitting in Will’s hand.

“Right, sorry,” he said quickly. “ _Am I like such a fellow?_ ”

Nursey’s head dipped, his ear pressing against his own shoulder. The top of his curls brushed against Dex’s arm.

_“Come, come, thou art as hot a jack in thy mood as any in Italy; and as soon be moved to be moody, and as soon as moody to be moved._ ”

Dex remembered the night of the kegster, Derek’s eyes locked on his as he shouted the same line across the room. Then he was loud, goofy, eager to make his audience laugh. To keep their eyes on him.

Now he was small and folded, but the same teasing tone clung to the line.

“What are you saying to me there?” Dex asked, before he could think better of it.

Nursey sat up, his eyes opening.

“Nevermind,” Dex said. “I’ll just keep–it was just the same line you said to me before. At the party,” he clarified.

“You remember that?” Nursey asked.

“ _I’m_ not the one who needs a drinking patrol,” Dex chirped. “Do _you_ remember it?”

“It means, when you want to get pissed, the littlest thing tips you over the edge. And you _always_ want to get pissed.” Nursey said. He reached out and poked Dex’s nose with his forefinger. “ _Benvolio_.”

Dex shoved him off.

“Fuck off.”

“Ah, _as soon be moved to be moody!_ ” Nursey sang.

“I hate you so much,” Dex muttered. He focused on his next line. “ _And what to_?”

He sat back, Nursey’s lines took up almost half of the next page, and let the book fall closed while he listened to him. He wondered if Nursey _really_ knew what it all meant. Or if he’d had to sparknotes it when he read it the first time just like everyone else.

It didn’t bother Dex as much as it maybe used to. That there was something Nursey understood so completely that Dex couldn’t make any sense of. He was sure if he showed Nurse his coding homework, Derek wouldn’t be able to make sense of it either. At least this was still _technically_ in the same language Dex knew.

“ _An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should buy the fee simple of my my life for an hour and a quarter._ ” Dex snorted when he finished the line.

“Got that one?” Nursey chirped.

“Yeah, that one I got,” Dex rolled his eyes. “Did _you_?”

“ _The fee simple? O simple!_ ”

“ _By my head_ ,” Dex continued. “ _Here come the Capulets._ ”

Nursey leaned his chin on his hand, his elbow propped between the crevice of the back of his knee.

“ _By my heel._ ” He smirked at Dex. “ _I care not._ ”

Dex flipped the book closed.

“What are you doing?” Nursey murmured.

“We don’t have a Tybalt,” Dex said. “I thought we were done.”

Nursey pouted a little, shifting himself closer to Will. He plucked the book from Dex’s lap, flipping back to where they were, pursing his lips for a long moment. Then, without explanation, he shoved the pages back into Dex’s hands, nodding down.

“ _Follow me close_ ,” he started, and Dex burst out laughing. “Shut _up_ , there has to be a difference in their voice.”

“Dude, your voice can get so _high \_ ,” Dex said. “I can’t believe this hasn’t been a method you’ve tried to drive me insane yet.”

“Well now that I _know_...” he said.

Nursey carried on, switching back and forth between Mercutio and Tybalt. Mercutio, which sounded just like himself. Like he really was Mercutio, like they were one and the same. Extravagant. Showmanlike. The more often they did this, the harder it became for Dex to find the line between Nursey and the act.

But his _Tybalt_. Nursey flung himself all over the bed as Tybalt spoke through him. His hands waving, head falling dramatically from side to side. His lips curled in a completely unthreatening sneer with every word.

Dex was nearly doubled in laughter by the time his next line came along.

“ _We talk here in the public haunt of men. Either withdraw unto some private place, or reason coldly of your grievances, or else depart. Here all eyes gaze on us._ ”

Nursey smiled up at him, collapsing back into the pillows behind him. They were up against the wall, shifted from all of Nursey’s close-quarters acting, Nursey’s head closer to Dex’s shoulder than in line with his own.

“ _Men’s eyes_ ,” Nurse whispered. He was back, slow and smooth, to how he’d been earlier. Only instead of his head pressed back against the wall with his eyes squeezed shut, he was pressed into Dex, like he couldn’t look away. “ _Were made to look._ ”

Nursey paused. Dex thought maybe he’d forgotten his line, but Nursey ignored it when he held the open page out to him.

“ _And let them gaze,”_ he said finally. Dex felt his skin prickle beneath him. Like every hair was standing on edge. “ _I will not budge for no man’s pleasure._ ”

He cleared his throat suddenly, shifting off of Dex and out of the bunk in one quick motion.

“And that’s uh, all I can really do,” Nursey said awkwardly. “Can’t be Mercutio, Tybalt _and_ Romeo, you know?”

“Sure,” Dex said. The bottom bunk felt wide and awkward. He set the book carefully down on the mattress and scooted off. “I guess I’m gonna go shower then,” he said. “If you don’t want to run lines anymore.”

Nursey nodded at him, pawing through his bag for something. He waved him toward the door.

“Nah bro, go ahead.”

•••

Dex had lost Nursey over an hour ago.

He wasn’t _technically_ on Nursey patrol–Ollie (or Wicks, he couldn’t actually remember which)–had volunteered to give him, Chowder and Bitty a break from it. Which was probably best, since Nursey had been avoiding him for days, and a drunk Nursey had a tendency to be shockingly evasive.

He’d been dancing with Bitty at the start of the party, making his way through the crowd of strangers, a hand on every hip he passed. Eventually Dex got bored watching him duck his head away every time he almost made eye contact with him, and had gone up to the reading room.

There were a few taddies up there, passing a cup of tub juice back and forth, so he’d sat with them quietly for a few minutes while they tried to explain the rules of whatever drinking game they’d been playing before he got up there.

It was a sharp jolt of a reminder of the nights when he and Chowder and Nursey (Chowder between them, Chowder _always_ between them) would sit there all together just like that. When he finally realized the Haus was his too. That all his teammates, especially the frogs–even Nursey–had his back.

“You know what,” he said, shifting suddenly. “I just–remembered something. You guys keep playing, I’ll be back in a bit.”

He ducked back out through the window.

“Hey C!” he called when he made his way downstairs. “You seen Nurse around?”

Chowder shook his head. “You’re not on Patrol are you?”

“Nah,” he said shrugging. “Just wondering. Haven’t seen him in a while.”

He felt Chowder’s eyes narrow curiously at him. In more of a panic move than anything else, he swiped the cup of tub juice from Chowder’s hand and downed it all in one go.

“Whatever,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll see him around.”

“Right,” Chowder said slowly. “Are you guys still okay?”

Dex nodded, grabbing another cup from a passing Bitty. ( _“Dex, I swear–”_ he heard Bitty mumble, before turning back around.)

“We’re great,” he grit out. “Why wouldn’t we be?”

Chowder stared meaningfully at the cup in Dex’s hands. Dex tipped it back and finished that one too.

“I dunno,” he said finally. “Just want to be sure.” A long silent moment passed. “I’m gonna go find Caitlin, you gonna be okay?”

Someone cleared their throat to Dex’s right, startling him. He stumbled to the side a bit, the cup falling out of his hand. A small, warm hand wrapped around his left shoulder, steading him.

“Hey Chris,” a girl with dark brown hair said. “I saw Caitlin in the kitchen looking for you. I can watch out for your friend while you go find her.”

“I don’t need someone to watch out for me,” Dex grumbled, but it all came out slower than he intended. He slipped his tongue out between his lips, pressing his mouth down around it like it was a _reset_ button he could hit and sound normal again.

“Thanks Val!” Chris smiled. “Dex, this is Val. Val this is Dex!”

And then he was turning around, making his way to the kitchen.

“Uh, hi,” Dex said. He wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to say to this person. How did Chow know her? Had he said? Dex couldn’t remember.

“I’m Caitlin’s roommate,” Val said, like she’d heard his thoughts.

“Cool.”

She smiled as the awkwardness crashed over them, and Dex wondered if he’d said it out loud or if he’d just thought it. So he tried again.

“Cool.”

“Yeah,” she laughed. “You said that.”

“Did I?”

“Maybe you need some air.” She reached forward and Dex almost asked her what she was doing, but then her long fingers were wrapping around his wrist and tugging him toward the front door.

Once they were outside, she shoved at his shoulders until he was sitting on the porch steps.

“Go on,” she said encouragingly. “Just sit down, ya giant ginger. How Cait deals with all you hockey boys on the regular I’ll never know.”

“We’re not _that_ bad.”

Val snorted. “You’ve got a whole drunk sad boy vibe happening, that is just a desperate cry for help, Dex. You wanna talk about it?”

“No,” Dex said quickly. Then, “I’m not sad.”

Val didn’t look like she believed him, but she also didn’t press it, so he let the conversation drop. He _wasn’t_ sad. He wasn’t.

At least he didn’t think he was.

He’d just–he wanted to know where Nursey was. Why he’d been avoiding him. It wasn’t even just tonight. For days, he’d practically been missing. He came to their room late, always saying he was out doing some poetry thing, or with some new study group. Even in practice he barely talked to him.

Dex didn’t think they were back to how things were last year, but maybe he’d just missed it. Like, somehow their teasing had turned into a real fight and he just hadn’t noticed.

“ _As soon be moved to be moody, and as soon as moody to be moved,”_ he muttered _._

“What?” Val laughed. “Are you quoting Shakespeare at me?”

Dex dropped his head to his knees. “Jesus, fuck, I think I am,” he said. “ _God,_ I got drunk quick.”

He felt Val’s hand rub his back in slow, soothing circles. It didn’t make him feel much better, but it was nice so he leaned into the touch.

“Stay here,” she said. “I’m gonna go get you some water.”

Dex nodded, his forehead rubbing against the scratchy denim of his pants.

It was only a minute before he heard the stairs next to him creaking again, a solid weight plopping down against his side. An arm wrapped it’s way across his shoulders, larger and heavier than Val’s had felt and Dex jolted upright.

“Jesus, Nurse,” he said, his heart slowing down again in his chest. “You scared the shit out of me, man. I thought you were Val.”

Nursey smirked, swaying closer to him. Dex could smell the booze on his breath, he was squeezed in so tight next to him.

Without warning, Nursey moved his mouth to the shell of Dex’s ear.

“ _Be ruled by me.”_ His breath was hot against Dex’s neck, but a chill washed over him with the words. “ _Forget to think of her._ ”

Nursey’s hands were hooked around him–one gripping his bicep, firm without being hard, the other back and around his shoulders, his fingers inching their way into the roots of Dex’s hair.

“I am way too drunk to deal with this again, Nurse,” he said, frozen in his spot. “I’ll run lines with you tomorrow, if your head hasn’t exploded by then.”

Nursey’s hands dropped from him suddenly.

“I’m not–whatever, Dex.” He stood up unsteadily, his arm shooting out to the railing Dex was currently slumped up against. “I’ll go find _Val_ for you I guess.”

“Hey, I’m just–Nurse–”

But Nursey was already back in the Haus, the screen door slamming shut behind him.

•••

When Dex woke up, it felt like his entire mouth was covered in felt. He reached down for the bag he kept looped around the post of his bunk, praying he’d remembered to refill the water bottle he kept in there before the kegster the night before.

When he pulled it out, it was only half full, but it was better than nothing, so Dex counted it as a win.

“Why the fuck are you making so much _noise_ , Poindexter.”

Dex rolled over enough to pop his head over the side of the mattress.

However rough he was feeling, Nursey was in 10 times rougher shape. His shirt was off, and his pants only made it half off, his left leg bare and dangling off his bed. His hair pointed out in every direction and he looked so dehydrated that his lips were even paler than Dex.

“Want some water?”  Dex dangled his bottle over the bed. Nursey reached out pathetically, groaning at the sight of it.

“Please.”

Dex took a final slurp, finishing off the water in there and dropped it on top of Nursey. “Go fill it yourself.”

“Wow,” Nursey groaned. “Fuck you, Poindexter.”

When he came back though, he had two full bottles of water, one of which he chucked up into Dex’s bunk, landing on his stomach with a _thawp_.

“So,” Dex said after a moment. “How are you feeling? Bad as you look?”

“‘ _Tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door, but ‘tis enough, ‘twill serve. Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man,”_ Nursey grumbled.

“What the fuck Nurse,” Dex said.

“I’m fucking dying,” Nursey translated. “ _I am peppered, I warrant for this world! They have made worms’ meat of me._ ”

Dex rolled his eyes.

“Right,” he said. He thought of the night before, of Nursey pressed against his side, his mouth at his ear. _Be ruled by me, think not of her_ , tumbling off his lips. Dex felt his face flush and was suddenly glad he’d gotten the top bunk, far far away from where anyone could see his burning cheeks. “Just got a Mercutio line for everything then.”

“What?” Nursey sounded confused.

“Last night, you came out onto the porch and started saying more of your lines,” he said.

“I–” he heard Nursey sigh. There was a long pause, and Dex thought maybe the conversation was over, before Nursey started talking again. “Yeah, sorry. The bard strikes when the bard strikes, you know, man?”

Dex thought back to the minutes before Nursey had come out onto the porch, when he’d quoted Nursey (well, _Shakespeare_ , but the two were inextricably tangled together in his mind now, forever) to Val.

“Yeah,” he said noncommittally. “I guess.”

“Chill,” Nursey said. “Well I’m going the fuck back to sleep, wake me if Bitty bakes something.”

“Yeah,” Dex said. “Sure.”

•••

After the party, Nursey was back to avoiding him. By the next friday, Dex was ready to snap. He was back to the Haus before Nursey, he always was on Fridays, so he shot him a text.

**_Dex:_ ** _dude, I haven’t seen you like all week._

**_Dex:_ ** _Annie’s after class today?_

**_Nursey:_ ** _can’t sry_

**_Nursey:_ ** _performance tonite_

**_Nursey:_ ** _see u later_

Dex stared down at his phone.

Maybe it was good. It was good, the whole thing would be over. It was all the Shakespeare shit that was causing the weirdness between them anyway, right? That’s when it had all started.

Now they could go back to just, doing homework in different places at different times. Not running lines together, not watching movies together, not grabbing Annie’s for two after class. Just using their room for sleeping like they used to.

That was...good, right?

They could go back to normal and Nursey could stop avoiding Dex and they could bicker like normal and get back to their d-men rhythm.

Dex pulled his shoes back on and grabbed his wallet.

•••

"Be ruled by me," Benvolio said on stage, and Dex's breath caught in his throat. "Forget to think of her."

Oh. _Oh_. 

Oh, fuck. 

•••

_“For never was there a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”_

Dex slipped out the back of the room before the applause had died down. He didn’t know the layout of the theater building like he knew the computer science buildings, or Faber, but he followed the shuffling noises down the hallway.

There were a few cast members milling about the hallway, half in costume, so Dex figured he was in the right spot, at least. He pushed into the room where the chatter was the loudest.

“Dex?”

Nursey sat off to the side, his stage makeup still on, but his costume in lazy stages of removal. He was back in his own slippers, his shirt half undone, jacket tossed on the chair behind him. Quickly, he stood up, his brows pushed together as he stared at Dex.

“What are you doing here, man?”

“I uh.” _This was the stupidest fucking idea_ , Dex thought. What _was_ he doing there? “Came to see the show?”

“You did.” Nursey’s voice was flat and disbelieving.

“Yeah well,” Dex shrugged like it didn’t matter. “Wanted to see my hard work pay off, you know?”

Nursey stared at him open mouthed for a moment. “Right,” he snapped his jaw shut. “Dex, I–”

“Derek!”

A tall blonde, frankly jacked, dude came up clapping Nursey on the shoulder. Dex tried to ignore the way it made his insides bristle.

“Oh, hey man,” Nursey said.

“Dude,” the blonde said, a hand over Nursey’s chest. “You were fucking incredible. I mean like in class is one thing but like, tonight? Blew me a-fucking-way. Best Queen Mab speech I’ve ever seen.”

Great. Now Dex had to come up with something better to say than _‘you did good, bro.’_ He glared at the guy, who was still touching Nursey, before turning back to Nursey himself.

“Right,” Dex snapped. “Well, good job. I’ll see you back at the Haus.”

He turned on his heel, out of the door before Nursey could say “Dex, _wait_.”

The back of his neck was burning. He felt so _stupid_ and he didn’t even know why. Why did it matter? Why had he gone in the first place? Why was the image of Derek fucking Nurse in half of his stage wear still burned into his eyes halfway back to the Haus?

“Jesus, Dex, _stop_!” he heard from behind him.

Nursey’s arm reached out and grabbed Dex’s elbow. He pulled until Dex came to a stop, small tugs inching him face to face with Nursey.

“What?” Dex snapped.

Nursey shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. “What’d uh...What’d you think?”

“Seriously?”

Nursey ducked his head, nodding shortly. When he looked back up at Dex he looked almost...hopeful? That couldn’t possibly be right.

“Uh, it was good,” Dex said dumbly. “Great. Super chill watching you die.”

“Fuck you,” Nurse laughed.

The air between them seemed heavier than normal, and even though Dex was ninety percent sure he was reading into it all wrong, finding what he wanted to find, but he couldn’t help the words that tumbled from him next.

“That line you said to me at the party,” he said. Nursey’s head snapped up. His eyes were wide and dark. With the light from the lamp post shining on half his face, the stage makeup standing out even more, he looked unreal. Like a dream Dex had suddenly brought to life. Dex felt himself swallow thickly before continuing. “On the porch. It wasn’t Mercutio’s line.”

“You remember that?”

Dex just raised his eyebrows at him.

“Right,” Nursey coughed. “Well, no. It wasn’t.”

Dex waited, but Nursey wasn’t looking at him anymore. His hands were shoved deep into his costume pockets, Dex could see the fists they were balled up into.

“That’s it?” Dex asked. “That’s...all you’re going to say?”

“What do you want me to say Dex?”

“You know what?” Dex threw his hands up. “Nothing. Don’t say anything. Whatever, Nurse.”

He waited for Nursey to call after him but he didn’t. He waited for him to turn around and walk away, but he didn’t. He waited for Nursey to do _anything_. But he didn’t.

“Actually, no,” Dex shouted, starting up again. “I _do_ want you to say something. Honestly what the fuck Nurse? You’ve been acting weird around me for days, and now you’re fucking silent?”

“Dex–”

“No, shut up,” Dex continued. “You want to be silent, be fucking silent. Because I don’t want whatever line you’re hiding behind right now. I don’t want to guess if it’s you or a character I’m talking to. I’m sick of–I’m sick of not knowing. If it’s all an act.”

Nursey’s lips were pressed together in a thin line, his cheeks dark and flushed, his eyes cast down.

“Dex.”

Dex paused for the shortest moment before carrying on. It all slammed into him at once, Nursey standing there, sweat lining his forehead from running after him. Curls drooping into his eyes. He knew why he’d been bothered by Nursey ignoring him, why the line at the party shook him so much, why he’d gone to see Nursey perform tonight. Why he wanted to fucking pummel that guy in Nursey’s class just for complimenting him before Dex got a chance to.

If he was going to fuck up their friendship either way, he might as well bite the bullet.

“Because I–I like you Nurse, okay? And not knowing if you’re talking to me or–or fucking _Benvolio_ –it’s honestly torture.”

Nursey was still silent, his mouth hanging open a little, like he was taking a deep breath in.

“Wow, still nothing?”

Nursey smiled. “You told me to shut up.”

“I just fucking–” Dex ran his fingers through his hair roughly. “You can fucking say something _now_ , Derek.”

Nursey’s lips quirked up further. “Derek, huh?”

“I hate you so much.”

“Hmm,” Nursey said stepping closer to him. “That’s not what you said _thirty seconds_ ago.”

“I swear to _god,_  Nurse–”

But Derek cut him off, hands curling into Dex’s front pockets, pulling him flush against him, lips brushing his soft and slow.

“I think I like Derek better,” Nursey whispered. “From you.”

“Shut up and fucking kiss me then,” Dex whispered back. “ _Derek_.”

He barely got the name out before Nursey’s mouth was back on his.

•••

Dex pushed Nursey against the door as soon as it was closed, stumbling a little, his chest falling against Derek’s.

“Ow,” Nursey muttered. His arm when back to where he’d bumped into the door knob. “Fuck.”

“ _If love be rough with you be rough with love_ ,” Dex muttered into his neck. He moved his way across Derek’s neck, his collarbone, shoved the neck of his shirt down to get access to his chest. “ _Prick love for pricking.”_

Nursey froze under him.

“Love, huh?”

Dex kept kissing him. “It’s like you don’t even want to get into my pants.”

“Dude,” Nursey laughed. “You just quoted Shakespeare while _kissing_ me. I’m honestly just trying not to come in my pants.”

“Guess you’ll just have to get used to it,” Dex muttered. He yanked at the shirt tucked into Nursey’s pants pulling it out and then going in on the buttons.

“Yeah?” Nursey asked.

Dex pulled back. Nursey actually sounded. Surprised? Was that the right word?

“Yeah,” Dex said. He could feel the blush working it’s way up his neck. He thought he’d been pretty clear when he’d–maybe not. “Yeah?”

Nursey smiled. “Fuck yeah.”

“Great,” Dex said. “Now shut up and take your pants off.”

“As you wish.”

Dex snorted. “That’s not Shakespeare, that’s the _Princess Bride._ ”

“Shut up and take your pants off.”

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on tumblr: @ofhobbitsandwomen


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